CuRVWander

  Since arriving at Death Valley we have been blessed with phenomenal views of vast swaths of geology.  But other than the resident coyote pack and a couple of roadrunners, we have not seen any wildlife.  Can't say that now.  On our project day this week we were going to a distant attraction called The Charcoal Kilns.  By road it was almost a 60 mile drive with lots of elevation gain, from -191 feet below sea level to more than 5,000 feet above sea level.  Like the rest of the national park there are old abandoned mining operations all over the place.  But equipment is not the only thing that was abandoned when the mine played out.  A lot of the physical labor done to get to and from the mines as well as at the mines themselves was done by burros.  When the mines were abandoned they didn't bother to salvage their animals, they just turned them loose and never looked back. Many generations of these burros have done well for themselves in the a...

  Training week is in the rear view mirror and we have several 72 hour shifts under our belts.  And an equal number of 72 hour off periods.  Early on it was uncomfortably hot day and night and we didn't get out unless we had to.  Same goes for our co-hosts but the rangers that have been here all summer think it's sweater weather when the thermometer gets down to 99.  There are a lot of factors that add up to make this spot, Furnace Creek, the hottest place on earth.  But the most prominent is its elevation.  Specifically here at Furnace Creek, 190 feet below sea level.  And that is not even the lowest point.  Just a few miles away at Badwater Basin the elevation is 282 feet below sea level. We've also been here long enough to need to make our once per month grocery run a couple of times.  Being in Furnace Creek that means getting across the state line to Pahrump in Nevada.  Of course it is uphill the whole way.  We're going fro...

 November 2024 Being the size of Connecticut provides for a lot of space for a lot of things.  There are plenty of abandoned mines and a few ghost towns in all this space.  This post is going to look at a couple of those. To the north and east, nearly at the park's eastern boundary thirty miles from Furnace Creek lies the ghost town of Rhyolite.  Only a little more than 100 years ago this was a thriving and prosperous community.  Rhyolite began showing on the map in early 1905 but was done for by 1910.  The gold mine that sparked Rhyolite to life was owned by Charles Schwab but even this financial genius couldn't keep the mine from playing out in a short time. It's amazing though, how developed the town was within just two years of its inception.  The bank, a cornerstone of the community was built from the git-go.  It was a three-story, poured concrete and brick structure with a basement that housed the post office. Even with its remoteness the ba...

  Mid/Late October 2024 You read that right, I'm talking about camp TV.  That's when you have a campsite with a great view and can watch the comings and goings of campers, kids on their bikes and scooters and the constantly changing light on the desert and mountains surrounding us.  Just set out your favorite camp chair, grab a camera and let what is before you in. So far, thankfully, all the drama has been in the sunsets and sunrises.  The campers just doing their thing has been pleasant to watch.  The desert and mountains may be silent to the ears but they are loud to the eyes. Looking west over the Panamint mountains. That tiny white dot to the top and left of the tree is not a star.  It is the planet Venus.  Incredible how visible it is  even with so much light still in the western sky. Sunset casting shadows on the Funeral Mountains as  the moon rises. One morning I was between rounds and was catching a little camp TV when I heard some s...

  Mid October 2024 With training done we have a few days before the official opening day of the campground, October 15th.  With it still being uncomfortably hot we're just enjoying some downtime (inside under the A/C) and setting up things like our post office box, scoping out the General Store, giving the ice cream parlor a try and sampling the buffet that park employees have access to as well as a deep discount off the $29 rate. I know I bored everyone with my multiple postings about all the maintenance work that I was having to do but I'm going to have to chronicle some more.  We have been fighting toilet floor flange leak for weeks now, essentially ever since we left North Carolina in September.  We came across a Camping World in Tucson, AZ and I bought a new floor flange seal with the intention of replacing the old one as soon as we got to Death Valley.  Dreading this work mightily I finally got myself pumped up enough to do the job.  But like many of ...